One of the areas of greatest challenge for financial planners in Ireland today is increasing the level of your fees / trail commission from the levels that you are currently charging. But time marches along, and often when you actually turn to really examining the issue, many advisers find that their charges haven’t increased at all in the last 10 years! There are very few other professions where this would be the case.

The comments that I hear are,

“It’s all well and good that UK & US advisers charge 1%, as their asset management fees are so low”

However, there are growing numbers of Irish advisers that do charge more and their clients happily pay more. So how do they do it?

Their proposition stacks up

Please note, this article is not about the merit of trail v fees, that’s a whole other conversation! For the purpose of this article, I’m simply going to call them both fees.

Advisers that attract higher levels of fees tend to have superior propositions. They have put a lot of time and energy into really thinking through their client proposition and the value that clients experience from working with their firm. There’s no grey in the proposition – they are crystal clear about all of the value areas.

When this work is done properly, very quickly all of the new areas of value that you provide become apparent, and you see where your proposition has grown and how you provide more value today than you did when your fees were set. All of this added value at no extra cost (currently)…

Once you start to clearly identify these areas of additional value, you’ve taken the first step to increasing your fees.

They actively communicate their value

This is often the area of biggest challenge, particularly with existing clients. Actually having that conversation with a client about the value being added. It’s always easier just to talk to the client about their financial plan, their cashflows and their policies – it all feels a bit “American” to have a chat about the value being added!

But if you don’t have this conversation, all you can do is cross your fingers and hope your clients see the value they are getting…

This conversation has to be highly structured (by you) and very well practiced. You need to be able to clearly demonstrate that you’re not just “winging it”, hoping to increase your fees on a case by case basis. Instead by clearly articulating the services that you provide, the value derived from them and the cost of them, clients can see what they are getting for their fees.

From experience, this tends to work best when advisers offer multiple (2 or 3 usually) service packages. The higher value packages show the increased services being offered for the higher fee levels. Also if a client is not willing to pay a higher fee level, they clearly see the services that they won’t be getting.

They justify their fees

The communication is critical, but a slick sales pitch is not enough! Advisers who charge higher fees clearly justify those higher fees. This is achieved through providing a range of evidence,

A statement of financial improvement is where you demonstrate to your client the actual € value of your advice – this might be in a net worth statement, portfolio increase, tax saved, costs saved or other such metrics

A client calendar of all the interactions that you carried out with / for them over the last 6 or 12 months such as the meetings you had, the phone conversations, the newsletters you sent them and the events you invited them to etc. Not forgetting of course the updates to their plan and cashflows, the portfolio rebalancing and ad-hoc service requests.

Timesheets are provided by some advisers to demonstrate the level of work carried out on the client’s behalf and providing a justification of fees in the process.

When you start pulling all of these strands together, it can seem like a lot of work to be undertaking. However the prize is huge! You will quickly realise the value you’re adding and this will give you increased confidence to have that conversation about higher fees with your clients. They see the fantastic value they are getting from working with you, while you earn more in the process. A win-win situation!

Financial brokers are always seeking out different ways to keep your clients engaged throughout the year. Many of you send out regular updates and newsletters, you of course meet clients face to face and some of you use technology to deliver excellent webinars and conference calls.

A popular marketing tool is client seminars, as these offer great opportunities to interact and engage with lots of clients. When carried out well, seminars can be significant brand enhancers. On the flip side though, when they are not done well they can significantly undermine your brand. Quality needs to sit at the heart of every aspect of them.

Here are some thoughts on delivering high quality seminars.

1. Don’t make it a once-off event

The best events are the regular events (this being even once a year) that clients really enjoy, get value from and look forward to the next one. Not easy to accomplish! But if you spend the time planning a regular event from the outset and think through themes that will carry forward to future events, this will always be much more powerful that a once-off event that in reality will deliver little long-term brand value.

2. Focus on quality throughout

Focus on quality throughout – the venue, speakers, the messages, room layout, presentation template, food, invitations, takeaway packs etc. Every aspect needs to be high quality. Spend a little extra and really wow you audience. This will make your event memorable and will encourage them back again.

3. Choose speakers carefully, even better if they are unexpected

The quality of the speakers is of course a really important ingredient. This is not a time for sales pitches, you want to add value through informing and educating (see point 6 below). In a previous life in 2008, we hosted a seminar for Financial Brokers at which the CFO of Ryanair spoke about cost cutting. At that time cost cutting was the no. 1 challenge for almost everyone in the audience. We got huge kudos for this seminar, as it was seen as providing information that was really valuable to the audience, at no direct gain to the company that was hosting the event.

4. Cut down your number of slides, and then cut them down again!

The number one presentation killer…… You have a very good message to deliver but you can’t understand halfway through why people are starting to nod off! More often than not, it’s because your presentation is just too long. The audience has just got bored!

A rule of thumb I use is to allow at least 2 minutes per slide (excluding the cover and end slides). That means if your presentation is 20 minutes long, there definitely should not be more than 10 slides.

5. Reduce the content on each slide

Assuming you will present yourself, don’t have more than 5/6 lines of text on a single slide. The audience have come to listen to you the speaker, not to read your slides! Otherwise they could just have asked you to email them a copy of the slides the next day. You are the main act and your slides are simply a visual reminder of what you’re saying, not the other way around!

If your presentation requires the audience to be given every detail, give them a hand-out at the end – how bad is it if they ring you the next day with a question?

6. Make your presentation engaging and educational

As mentioned earlier, your goals are (or should be) to inform and educate. Ensure your message is crafted with these in mind. Then you need to make the presentation more engaging, both in terms of your spoken message and any supporting slides. Use simple visual prompts by bringing in graphs and diagrams to make points. A single video (no more) can add a lot but only if it is very relevant.

This can be a lot of effort but is really worth it. If you don’t have the PowerPoint skills yourself, use someone who does. You’ve gone to the bother of getting a room full of people together, it is so important now that you engage the audience fully. Oh and talk to your audience, not your slides! If there is an opportunity to interact with them by questions / looking for a show of hands, then this is even better.

7. Make sure everything works at the venue

Check out the venue beforehand and then on the day, get to the venue with loads of time to spare in case time is needed for any unforeseen problems. Nothing will damage your confidence and ultimately the delivery of your presentation more than rushing to try and sort out issues…. If possible, have someone there as a support to deal with any potential problems for you.

Is there enough parking nearby? Is the sound good enough in the room and are there enough chairs? What about the temperature in the room? Also, do a complete run through of the entire presentation with someone at the back of the room – not just the first few slides. Can they read the slides or is the typeface too small? Is the projector strong enough? Do all the links in the presentation work and will your video play properly? Once you see everything working perfectly, you will relax and can go and greet your guests.

8. Practice, practice, practice

I know, this is really obvious but so often ignored! The benefits of practice? Well first of all, the more prepared you are, the more confident you will be and the better your delivery will be! How many times have you finished a presentation and thought “I meant to say…… but just forgot”. This is less likely to happen if you practice. If you practice, you are more likely to stay on track in terms of the message and also your timings, so you’ll probably finish the presentation stronger.

9. Spend time thinking about the Q&A

What are the likely questions and how will you respond? What are the potential curveballs and how will you deal with them? How will you deal with any unexpected and very negative question – think how you’ll cut this off cleanly and quickly and enable yourself to move on. Listen to the news that day. If there’s a current and relevant story, develop a position on it. If you want an easy start to the Q&A, plant a question in the room to get the conversation going.

10. Close the event out well

As soon as people start to get up from their chairs, there is a temptation to get back to the day job. Now though is the time to seek feedback that will help you plan future events, either through a feedback form or via a survey. And follow up then personally with people afterwards. You might just have opened up a new line of thinking in their heads that will result in opportunities for you.

Quality throughout is the key. High quality seminars, particularly a series of them over a few years can deliver excellent long term brand value to your business.